And when the teacher Zacchæus heard the child speaking such and so great allegories of the first letter, he was at a great loss about such a narrative, and about His teaching.
2And He said to those that were present: Alas!
3I, wretch that I am, am at a loss, bringing shame upon myself by having dragged this child hither.
4Take him away, then, I beseech thee, brother Joseph.
5I cannot endure the sternness of his look; I cannot make out his meaning at all.
6That child does not belong to this earth; he can tame even fire.
7Assuredly he was born before the creation of the world.
8What sort of a belly bore him, what sort of a womb nourished him, I do not know.
9Alas! my friend, he has carried me away; I cannot get at his meaning: thrice wretched that I am, I have deceived myself.
10I made a struggle to have a scholar, and I was found to have a teacher.
11My mind is filled with shame, my friends, because I, an old man, have been conquered by a child.
12There is nothing for me but despondency and death on account of this boy, for I am not able at this hour to look him in the face; and when everybody says that I have been beaten by a little child, what can I say?
13And how can I give an account of the lines of the first letter that he spoke about?
14I know not, O my friends; for I can make neither beginning nor end of him.
15Therefore, I beseech thee, brother Joseph, take him home.
16What great thing he is, either god or angel, or what I am to say, I know not.